Frederick Forsyth, the British author of The Devil’s Alternative and other bestselling thrillers, died at the age of 86 after a brief illness, his literary agent said on Monday.
Jonathan Lloyd, his agent, said Forsyth died at home early Monday surrounded by his family.
Born in Kent in 1938, Forsyth served as a Royal Air Force pilot before becoming a foreign correspondent.
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He covered the attempted assassination of French President Charles de Gaulle in 1962, which provided inspiration for The Day of the Jackal, his bestselling political thriller about a professional assassin.
Published in 1971, the book propelled him into global fame.
It was made into a film in 1973 starring Edward Fox as the Jackal and more recently a television series starring Eddie Redmayne and Lashana Lynch.
British actor Eddie Redmayne and British actress Lashana Lynch pose for photos on the red carpet at the “The Day of the Jackal” premiere in London, 22 October, 2024 AP Photo
In 2015, Forsyth told the BBC that he had also worked for the British intelligence agency MI6 for many years, starting from when he covered a civil war in Nigeria in the 1960s.
Although Forsyth said he did other jobs for the agency, he said he was not paid for his services and “it was hard to say no” to officials seeking information.
“The zeitgeist was different,” he told the BBC. “The Cold War was very much on.”
He wrote more than 25 books including “The Afghan,” “The Kill List,” and “The Dogs of War” that sold over 75 million copies, Lloyd said.
His publisher, Bill Scott-Kerr, said that “Revenge of Odessa,” a sequel to the 1974 book “The Odessa File” that Forsyth worked on with fellow thriller author Tony Kent, will be published in August.
“Still read by millions across the world, Freddie’s thrillers define the genre and are still the benchmark to which contemporary writers aspire,” Scott-Kerr said.
Profile
Son of a furrier, he was born in Ashford, Kent, educated at Tonbridge School and later attended the University of Granada. He became one of the youngest pilots in the Royal Air Force at 19, where he served on National Service from 1956 to 1958.
As a journalist, he joined Reuters in 1961 and later the BBC in 1965, where he served as an assistant diplomatic correspondent.
From July to September 1967, Forsyth served as a correspondent covering the Nigerian Civil War between the region of Biafra and Nigeria.
He left the BBC in 1968 after controversy arose over his alleged bias towards the Biafran cause and accusations that he falsified segments of his reports. Returning to Biafra as a freelance reporter, Forsyth wrote his first book, The Biafra Story in 1969.
He was best known for thrillers such as The Day of the Jackal, The Odessa File, The Fourth Protocol, The Dogs of War, The Devil’s Alternative, The Fist of God, Icon, The Veteran, Avenger, The Afghan, and recently, The Cobra and The Kill List.
